Qualcomm Incorporated (NASDAQ: QCOM) through its subsidiary, Qualcomm Technologies, Inc., today announced that its innovations in Wi-Fi are leading industry growth, redefining customer experiences and helping to enable smarter homes. The company has been leading the transition to mesh networking with its pioneering Qualcomm® Mesh Networking Platform, with mesh networks accounting for nearly 40 percent of the US retail home Wi-Fi market, up from just 5 percent 18 months ago, and of which Qualcomm Technologies claims leading share,according to NPD Group. Similarly, Qualcomm Technologies has played an integral role in the most significant standards transition ever undertaken by the Wi-Fi industry, the emergent 802.11ax standard. This Wi-Fi leadership attests to Qualcomm Technologies’ central role in inventing and supporting technologies that benefit consumers and original equipment manufacturers (OEMs) alike. This technology leadership continues with a strong design pipeline with support for mesh networking and 11ax design wins targeted for 2018.

Leadership in Mesh Networking

Qualcomm Technologies helped initiate the home mesh networking revolution by introducing its Mesh Networking Platform, which has led to mesh becoming the de-facto standard architecture for smart home connectivity. The company’s leadership is evident in the following areas:

Retail Mesh Market Leadership

Today, nearly all major OEMs including ASUS, Belkin, D-Link, eero, Google, Linksys, Luma, Netgear, Samsung, TP-Link and Ubiquiti Networks, among others, are leveraging Qualcomm Technologies to bring advanced mesh Wi-Fi systems to market that help drive next generation experiences in the home.

Netgear, who offers one of the most complete and broad offerings of mesh products, has just recognized Qualcomm Technologies, for the third year running, as its Semiconductor Supplier of the Year, affirming Qualcomm Technologies’ vital role in supporting highly innovative, differentiated, quick-to-market wireless platforms for our customers.

Expansion to the Service Provider Market

Qualcomm Technologies has moved aggressively to help bring mesh networking to the millions of subscribers whose ISP provides wireless connectivity, by adding carrier-grade features, including Video-over-Mesh streaming capabilities.

Most recently, Comcast and Bell Canada have announced products leveraging Plume Adaptive WiFi™, based on the Qualcomm Mesh Networking Platform, that provide consumers with the benefits of mesh as part of their networking offerings.

New, Groundbreaking Voice-Recognition Capabilities and Expansion to Smart Home Products

The recent addition of platform features like enhanced voice recognition capabilities, as seen in the recently announced ASUS Lyra Voice system with Amazon’s Alexa, as well as Qualcomm Mesh Networking Platform integration with Microsoft’s digital assistant Cortana, significantly grows the platform’s appeal by creating virtually seamless voice-driven smart home experiences.

The success and stable performance of the Qualcomm Mesh Networking Platform has drawn the attention of common smart home product manufacturers and service provider to base their smoke detectors, smart lighting, smart speakers, and security services on the mesh platform.

“Qualcomm Technologies has a proven track record of enabling and building new ecosystems of wireless connectivity, driving dramatically improved connected experiences in mobile, smart homes, public spaces and beyond,” said Rahul Patel, senior vice president and general manager, connectivity and networking, Qualcomm Technologies, Inc. “Through innovation, we are revolutionizing Wi-Fi networking platforms by investing ahead of the market to create technologies and design products that support the ways people are using connected devices today and in the future and help provide our partners with the technology edge they need to win in the market.”

“Consumers are continuously demanding better connectivity and a more intuitive way to control the many smart devices in their homes,” said Tenlong Deng, General Manager, ASUS Networking and Wireless Devices Business Unit. “Utilizing the Qualcomm Mesh Networking Platform in our new ASUS Lyra Voice has enabled us to be one of first to provide customers with seamless device voice control and assistance capabilities, while blanketing their homes with near corner-to-corner wireless connectivity.”

“As the number of Wi-Fi enabled devices continue to grow, as well as the increasing bandwidth offered by Internet Service Providers, having the right Wi-Fi solution to deliver all the bandwidth around the home is critical to a seamless and reliable Wi-Fi experience,” said, Eu Chong Son, vice president of engineering at Linksys. “Having both our Linksys Velop Tri-Band and Dual-Band Intelligent Mesh systems, based on the Qualcomm Mesh Networking Platform, helps enable us to deliver flexible true Wi-Fi mesh options for any environment.”

“Boosting network performance in high-density environments is critical to ensure users enjoy a robust and secure wireless experience,” said Ash Chowdappa, VP & GM at Aruba Networks, a Hewlett Packard Enterprise Company. “Qualcomm Technologies has been a key partner enabling us to bring our unique, secure Wi-Fi differentiation to market helping enable the mobile-first world we all live in today.”

“At Bell, we understand that the number of Wi-Fi enabled devices our customers are using throughout their homes is rapidly growing, and that mesh network solutions are critical to ensuring network optimization and seamless connectivity,” said Shawn Omstead, Vice President, Residential Products, Bell Canada. “Our new Whole Home Wi-Fi service utilizes Plume pods, based on the Qualcomm Mesh Networking Platform, helping us to deliver the full coverage and control our customers demand from their in-home Wi-Fi experience.”

“For consumers who are streaming, surfing, and gaming everywhere in their homes, seamless connectivity is a must,” said Nick Weaver, CEO & Co-Founder at eero. “The eero Wi-Fi system, built with Qualcomm Technologies’ Wi-Fi solutions, ensures our customers get one of the best Wi-Fi experience in every corner of their home.”

“Our customers require super strong Wi-Fi inside and outside their homes, and our Orbi WiFi system certainly delivers,” said Patrick Lo, CEO and Chairman at Netgear. “Mesh technology has revolutionized in-home connectivity, and we are thrilled to leverage Qualcomm Technologies’ platform to deliver innovative solutions that have virtually no boundaries to how our customers connect in their homes.”

“Plume was the first company to introduce deeply distributed, cloud based Adaptive WiFi networking that customizes to a home’s needs in real time, so that every room and device has a blazing fast, reliable Wi-Fi connection now and into the future,” said Fahri Diner, CEO of Plume. “We are committed to continue using the most advanced technology to bring such innovative solutions to market.”

While leading the charge to 11ax for home, enterprise and carrier applications, Qualcomm Technologies has also been deeply involved in the creation and field trial of the Wi-Fi Alliance’s Wi-Fi CERTIFIED Vantage™ program on KDDI’s public Wi-Fi network at the Shibuya train station in Tokyo, Japan. The trial demonstrated substantial improvements in the performance and user experience of Wi-Fi on a congested carrier network, including up to 16x faster connection set-up and up to 30 percent improvement in network efficiency. Historically, Qualcomm Technologies has provided technology and product leadership during major technology and industry standards transitions, and the transition currently underway to 802.11ax is no exception. As networks have become more crowded, Qualcomm Technologies has introduced solutions that improve performance in high-density networks with unprecedented capacity and efficiency. Qualcomm Technologies’ IPQ8074 11ax solution is already seeing tremendous traction with solutions coming to market with Huawei Enterprise, Korea Telecom during the Winter Olympics, and both NEC and KDDI signaling 11ax deployments for Japan.

Specifically, Qualcomm Technologies in collaboration with Ruckus Networks, an ARRIS company, recently completed the industry’s first announced trial of Carrier Wi-Fi enhancements based on the second phase of the Wi-Fi Alliance’s Wi–Fi CERTIFIED Vantage™ program on KDDI’s public Wi-Fi network at the Shibuya train station in Tokyo, Japan. The trial demonstrated substantial improvements in the performance and user experience of Wi-Fi on a congested carrier network, including up to 16x faster connection set-up and up to 30 percent improvement in network efficiency.

“Wi-Fi networks with seamless connectivity are a critical part of city infrastructure, similar to our recent trials with KDDI demonstrating high-performance Wi-Fi in dense environments,” said Steve Martin, CTO, Ruckus Networks. “We are committed to developing innovative network technologies that deliver constant connectivity with a high quality of service, especially in densely populated areas such as smart cities, campuses, schools, airports, train stations and more.”